Friday, April 05, 2013

Review - Evil Dead (2013)

Evil Dead is the remake to Sam Raimi's 1981 classic The Evil Dead. There's no Ash this time but this remake still stuck to its roots from the original film. We meet five friends vacationing at a lonely cabin in the woods. They stumble across the Book of the Dead in the cabin, and unknowingly awake a demon which goes on to unleash absolute terror on the group.

Unlike the original, Evil Dead doesn't give us any backstory to the Book of the Dead/Necronomicon. However in the opening scene we can establish that the book is associated with evil. The only backstory provided in this movie is about the two main characters Mia (Jane Levy) and David (Shiloh Fernandez) who are siblings. We learn of their past family issues and their reason for coming to the cabin. That's it. Director Fede Alvarez establishes from the get-go that this movie isn't about story, history or whatever. This remake was made solely to entertain us as it gets straight to the point. I was entertained from start to finish with exciting and bloody violence.

When it came on to the visuals in this movie, Director Alvarez's attention to detail was phenomenal. This movie was not in 3D but I felt like I was in the movie. I could see and feel every scrape, scratch, slash, cut and stab inflicted upon the characters. I thought the abrupt scene flashes/ends were effective; it really built that tension and creepiness. Evil Dead is downright nasty (you may or may not like this). It is grimey, gorey and some scenes even had me like "yuck!" Sam Raimi produced this film and he definitely imprinted and made his mark in regard to these aspects.

The movie had its creepy moments running hand in hand with its bloody violence. It's nowhere near as comical as the original Evil Dead but there were a few funny lines scattered throughout. The pacing was good; at no point did it lag or anything because the violence just kept on rolling. The script isn't strong but I thought the characters were solid nonetheless. Kudos to Jane Levy as lead; she was good and I thought her transition in personalities was excellent. The characters in their possessed states were pretty frightening and showed us why it's called the Evil Dead.

Most horror films these days provide us only with cheap scares, bad acting and over-used storylines. Evil Dead pays homage to the original film but it was awesome in its own way. It was downright entertaining, cringing, bloody and violent. A recommended remake.

Rating: 8/10

Movies Also Watched:

Sightseers (2012)
A British black comedy that sets out to make fun of the subject at hand and does so quite amusingly. - 8.5/10

The Double Life of Veronique (1991)
Lovely music and cinematography but the story didn't quite hold me. - 6/10

Snatch (2000)
A star-studded and funny British comedy that will keep you entertained. - 8/10

I agree with you about it being "entertaining, cringing, bloody and violent" but I noticed you didn't say it was scary. In the end that's what held it back from going from a good horror film to a great horror film- it lacked good scares and instead went for sheer gore.